The printing and publishing industries in Europe and America underwent radical transformations as a result of industrialization in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Machine presses supplanted hand-presses, and as the century progressed mass literacy created a new demand for different forms of printed material for instruction, education, and entertainment. The making of books became faster, cheaper, and somewhat out of control, and the books themselves registered these changes in their material forms. Text and image worked with and against each other in novel and surprising ways. This course will examine these ruptures and pose critical questions about the changing socio-economic roles of reading and writing throughout the 19th century. Early sessions will cover the hand-press era, from Gutenberg to Blake, and the final session will look forward to the 20th century and the advent of digital technologies. In addition to weekly reading assignments and a short theoretical paper, students will conduct independent research in the Library of Congress and present a developed "case study" seminar paper to the class at the end of the semester. At times this course may be cross-tallied at the graduate level as CAS 6390. Additional work required for graduate level credit is outlined in the course syllabus.